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Hogarth Press

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Hogarth Press
Hogarth House, 34 Paradise Road,Richmond,London
Parent companyPenguin Random House
StatusAcquired
Founded1917
FounderLeonard WoolfandVirginia Woolf
Defunct1946Edit this on Wikidata
SuccessorChatto & WindusandCrown Publishing Group
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Headquarters locationLondon
Publication typesBooks
Official websitewww.randomhousebooks/imprint/hogarth-books/(United States)
www.penguin.co.uk/company/publishers/vintage/hogarth.html(United Kingdom)
Blue plaque

TheHogarth Pressis a book publishingimprintofPenguin Random Housethat was founded as an independent company in 1917 by British authorsLeonard WoolfandVirginia Woolf.It was named after their house inRichmond(then inSurreyand now inLondon), in which they began hand-printing books as a hobby during theinterwar period.

Hogarth originally published the works of many members of theBloomsbury Group,[1]and was at the forefront of publishing works onpsychoanalysisand translations of foreign, especially Russian, works.

In 1938, Virginia Woolf relinquished her interest in the business and it was then run as a partnership by Leonard Woolf andJohn Lehmannuntil 1946, when it became an associate company ofChatto & Windus.[2]In 2011, Hogarth Press was relaunched as an imprint for contemporary fiction in a partnership between Chatto & Windus in the United Kingdom andCrown Publishing Groupin the United States, which had both been acquired byRandom House.[3]

History

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Printing was a hobby for the Woolfs, and it provided a diversion for Virginia when writing became too stressful.[4]The couple bought a handpress in 1917 for£19 (equivalent to about £1295 in 2018)[5]and taught themselves how to use it. The press was set up in the dining room of Hogarth House, where the Woolfs lived, lending its name to the publishing company they founded. In July they published their first text, a book with one story written by Leonard and the other written by Virginia.[6]

Between 1917 and 1946 the Press published 527 titles.[7]It moved toTavistock Squarein 1924.[8][4]

Number of publications by year from 1917 to 1946[9]
Year 1917 1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946
Titles published 1 2 5 3 6 9 14 14 28 31 42 30 30 30 34 36 20 21 24 23 20 17 23 12 13 12 7 10 4 4
Profit generated by the Hogarth Press publication (without bonuses and salaries)[10]
Year 1917–18 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938
Profit £13 8s 8d £13 14s 2d £68 19s 4d £25 5s 6d £10 6s 4d £5 7s 8d £3 17s 0d £73 1s 1.5d £26 19s 1d £64 2s 0d £380 16s 0d £580 14s 8d £2,373 4s 2.5d £2,209 0s 1.5d £1,693 4s 1d £929 15s 2.5d £516 13s 0d £598 7s 2d £84 5s 0d £2,422 18s 5d £35 7s 7d

Series

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The frontispiece of a publication from 1929 with Hogarth's official logo portraying the head of a wolf[11]

The Hogarth Press produced a number of publication series that were affordable as well as being attractively bound and printed, and usually commissioned from well known authors. These include the initialHogarth Essaysin three series 1924–1947 (36 titles), Hogarth Lectures on Literature(2 series 1927–1951),Merttens Lectures on War and Peace(8 titles 1927–1936),Hogarth Living Poets(29 titles 1928–1937),Day to Day Pamphlets(1930–1939),Hogarth Letters(12 titles 1931–1933) andWorld-Makers and World-Shakers(4 titles 1937).[12]

TheEssayswere the first series produced by the press and include works byVirginia Woolf,Leonard WoolfandGertrude Stein.Virginia Woolf's defence ofmodernism,Mr. Bennett and Mrs. Brown(1924) was the initial publication in the series. Cover illustrations were by Woolf’s sisterVanessa Bell.Bell also designed book jackets for all of Woolf’s books that were published by Hogarth Press.[13][12]

TheLettersare less well known, and areepistolaryin form. Authors includeE.M. Forsterand Virginia Woolf. Woolf'sA Letter to a Young Poet(1932), was number 8, and addressed toJohn Lehmannas an exposition on modern poetry. Cover illustrations were byJohn Banting.[14][12]In 1933, the entire series was reissued as a single volume,[15]and are available on theInternet Archivein a 1986 edition.[16]

  1. A letter to Madam Blanchard,E. M. Forster(1931)
  2. A letter to an M.P. on disarmament,Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 1st Viscount Cecil of Chelwood(1931)
  3. A letter to a sister,Rosamond Lehmann(1931)
  4. The French pictures: a letter to Harriet,Robert MortimerandJohn Banting(1932)
  5. A letter from a black sheep,Francis Birrell(1932)
  6. A letter toW. B. Yeats,L. A. G. Strong(1932)
  7. A letter to a grandfather,Rebecca West(1933)
  8. A letter to a young poet, Virginia Woolf (1932)
  9. A letter to a modern novelist,Hugh Walpole(1932)
  10. A letter to an archbishop,J. C. Hardwick(1932)
  11. A letter toAdolf Hitler,Louis Golding(1932)
  12. A letter to Mrs. Virginia Woolf,Peter Quennell(1932)

Notable title history

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See also:Category:Hogarth Press books

The Hogarth Shakespeare Project

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In 2015 Hogarth Press began producing a series of modern retellings ofWilliam Shakespeareplays, known as theHogarth ShakespeareProject, for which it hired a variety of authors:

  1. The Gap of Time(based onThe Winter's Tale),Jeanette Winterson(published 2015)
  2. Shylock is my Name(based onThe Merchant of Venice),Howard Jacobson(published 2016)
  3. Vinegar Girl(based onThe Taming of the Shrew),Anne Tyler(published 2016)
  4. Hag-Seed(based onThe Tempest),Margaret Atwood(published 2016)
  5. New Boy(based onOthello),Tracy Chevalier(published 2017)
  6. Dunbar(based onKing Lear),Edward St Aubyn(published 2017)
  7. Macbeth(based onMacbeth),Jo Nesbo(published 2018)

References

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  1. ^Gillespie, Diane F. (Spring 2003),"Virginia Woolf, the Hogarth Press, and the detective novel"(PDF),South Carolina Review,35(2), archived fromthe original(PDF)on 5 March 2016
  2. ^"Hogarth".Penguin Books.Retrieved15 November2020.
  3. ^"Random Creates Hogarth, a U.S.-U.K. Imprint".PublishersWeekly.Retrieved29 November2019.
  4. ^abHeyes, Duncan (25 May 2016)."The Hogarth Press".British Library.Archived fromthe originalon 27 March 2017.Retrieved14 November2020.
  5. ^"Inflation calculator".Bank of England.
  6. ^Gaither 1986, pp. xx–xxi.
  7. ^Gaither 1986, p. xviii.
  8. ^Southworth 2012.
  9. ^Woolmer 1986.
  10. ^Willis 1992, 406.
  11. ^Obermair, Hannes (2013),"Danger Zones – der englische Historiker John Sturge Stephens (1891–1954), der italienische Faschismus und Südtirol",in Faber, Richard (ed.),Italienischer Faschismus und deutschsprachiger Katholizismus,Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann, pp. 137–62 (140),ISBN978-3-8260-5058-9
  12. ^abcDelaware2010.
  13. ^Catlin, Roger."A sister's bookish art for her sister, Virginia's, publishing company, the Hogarth Press".Washington Post.
  14. ^Woolf 1932.
  15. ^Woolf & Woolf 1933.
  16. ^Lee 1986.
  17. ^"Paris by Hope Mirrlees".British LibraryCollection items.Retrieved27 August2023.

Bibliography

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